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THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 



CHAS. W; DABNEY, JR. 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 

A GROWTH ; NOT A CREATION. 



By CHARLES W. DABNEY, jR. 
Reprinted from Science of March 5, 1897 






IN EXCHANGl 



THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY. 



Material for it now in Washington, and the Relation of 
the Civil Service to it. 

We Americans do not, as a rule, believe in "the day of small 
things." Whatever we do, we like to do on a great scale and with 
a great rush and a great noise. Sometimes we are unwilling to do 
anything at all until we can do something very grand. Unquestion- 
ably, it is wise not to try to do a thing until we are prepared to do 
it well ; but our weakness is that, being a young and inexperienced 
people, whose growth has been rapid beyond precedent, we are not 
willing to wait for things to grow. We believe in making things out- 
right by our might, or buying them forthwith with our money. We 
do indeed possess magnificent powers of initiative, but we trust too 
much to those powers to accomplish our purposes, and oftentimes try 
to do things before the conditions are present and the times are ripe 
for them. 

We also believe in the power of the legislative fiat, and think we 
can accomplish anything by passing an act through Congress 
or a legislature. Born legislators, every one of us, we think we can 
educate the people by law and make them good bylaw. "Beit 
enacted " is our method of making all improvements and our remedy 
for all social ills. 

A multi-millionaire who was considering the plans for a great 
university which he proposed to establish is said to have asked the 
distinguished president of an institution which he had just inspected 
by way of informing himself with regard to such matters, "Well, 
you have a big plant here ; how much does it stand you in '?" In like 
fashion the ordinary American business man thinks, no doubt, that 
when we decide that we want it we will appropriate a vast sum 
of money, erect a magnificent pile of buildings, and establish a board 
of regents made up of distinguished men who, in turn, will organize 
a series of great faculties, and that these faculties will go to lectur- 
ing at once in beautiful halls to expectant crowds of young people 
— and there is the National University ! 



Every student Ipiows that even with all this grand outfit we would 
still not have a true National University until we also have great 
scholars, thinkers, and investigators to teach, and great laboratories 
and libraries in which they and their students can work. Congress 
can not create thinkers or Ijuild laboratories or collect libraries, even 
in a decade. Even with all these things present, there would still 
be lacking the university spirit and atmosphere, which are the results 
of development and the products of national culture. 

We have not had a National University before, because we were 
not prepared for it. We were not competent to maintain or appre- 
ciate it. A National University is the richest fruit of the civilization 
of the people, and we will see our great University opened when we 
are noble and cultured enough to be worthy of it. Washington fore- 
saw clearly the necessity for such a university and provided for it as 
far as he could ; but even he could not foresee that it would require a 
hundred years for the nation to take its primary, high school and 
collegiate training, and so be prepared for the graduate course. If the 
times are now ripe for a National University, as many of us believe 
they are, it is because we have, as a people, completed our prepara- 
tory course, and are now ready to improve the opportunities afforded 
by such an institution. If the time has arrived to begin the work of 
its organization, it is partly because the scholars and thinkers are 
here, because many of the laboratories are alread}" built, and our vari- 
ous national libraries are full of books ; but, if we are ripe for the 
National University, it is chiefly because the spirit of study and re- 
search is beginning to stir our whole people. The real National 
University already exists in spirit, in the great scientific and 
historical establishments in Washington and throughout the coun- 
try, and the time has come to give it a body. 

In an article in Science for January 15, the writer enumerated the 
scientific establishments of the Government designed to develop the 
natural resources of the country, for the j^urpose of pointing out the 
necessity for their better organization as a step toward the proper 
coordination of their work. It is proposed at this place — 

First, to look at these and the other scientific bureaus of the Gov- 
ernment from the point of view of a National University, so as to see 
what we already have in Washington as basal material for such an 
institution and what will have to be provided ; and 



Second, to point out a method, by which the Civil Service Com- 
mission can be used to promote the National University and assist 
proper persons in securing its advantages and opportunities. 

I. — Material Already in Wasliington. 

A good deal of work is going on in the Congressional Library and the 
libraries of the State and other Departments, which corresponds to the 
literary work of a university, but there is little else in the Government 
in Washington which would answer as a foundation for the depart- 
ments of philology and philosophy of such an institution. These, 
however, are almost the only important departments which are not 
already represented here. Anthropology is represented by the Bu- 
reau of Ethnology and several other bureaus in the Smithsonian 
Institution and the National Museum. Political science and the 
science of society are represented by the several Executive Depart- 
ments, by Congress, and more especially in the work of the Congres- 
sional and other great libraries. Economics is pursued in many of 
its branches by all of these and especially by the Bureau of Statistics 
of the Treasury Department, the Dejaartment of Labor, and the Cen- 
sus, which we hope is soon to be made a permanent bureau. Juris- 
prudence and law are represented by the Supreme Court and the 
other courts of the District ; history by several bureaus in the State 
Department, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Congressional 
Library ; and education by the Bureau of Education, the office of 
Indian Affairs, the Dej)artment of Agriculture, etc. In these we 
have already, if not active teaching agencies, at least the very best 
facilities for investigation in these subjects to be found anywhere in 
this country, if not in the world. 

It is in the department of science, however, that the Government 
has the most and best basal material ready to hand upon which to 
build a National University. This department is weakest, perhaps, 
in some of the pure sciences. Mathematics, however, is ably repre- 
sented by the National Observatory and the Nautical Almanac. 
Physics is illustrated extensively in the several bureaus of steam 
engineering, construction and ordnance of the Navy Department, 
and in the engineering and testing laboratories of the War Depart- 
ment. Almost every conceivable application of physics is studied in 
the Patent Office and many of them also in the Coast Survey and 



6 

the Weather Bureau. Engineering is represented in the Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, the General Land Office, the various hydro- 
graphic offices, and many other bureaus. Chemistry is practiced 
extensively in many laboratories, notabl}" those of the Geological 
Survey and the Department of Agriculture. 

In the Geological Survey and the National Museum we have the 
material for a department of geology, geography, paleontology, 
etc. ; in the National Herbarium and the Division of Botany of the 
Department of Agriculture the material for a school of botany ; in 
the Biological Survey, the Commission of Fish and Fisheries, and 
the National Museum again, a complete collection of specimens and 
equipment is found for a department of geiieral biology. And so 
through all the natural sciences. The men, the material, and the 
laboratories are nearly all here already. 

The material for the great professional departments is even 
more abundantly supplied. Medicine is magnificently represented 
in the office of the Surgeon- General of the Army, to which belongs 
the great Army Medical Museum and Library, and several laborato- 
ries. A graduate school for army surgeons has already been estab- 
lished under this office. In the same connection are to be mentioned 
the Marine Hospital Service of the Treasury Department, with its 
admirable laboratories, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the 
Navy, and the bacteriological and pathological laboratories of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry. 

The material for the professional department of jurisprudence and 
law is, of course, unsurpassed. Law libraries are found in the 
Supreme Court, and in nearly all of the other courts, and in several 
of the Executive Departments. In fact, it would seem that every- 
thing is ready at hand for this department, save onlj^ the central 
organization and the lecture halls. 

In the Department of Agriculture we find all the material ready to 
hand for a college of agriculture, horticulture, and forestry ; in the 
Bureau of Education are stores of statistics and other data for the 
use of students of pedagogics ; in the office of the Architect of the 
Treasury there is the foundation for a school of architecture and con- 
struction. In fact, so much material is found in Washington that 
it will be difficult to decide which schools should be started first and 
which postponed to some future time. 



II.— The Civil Service Commission aud the National University. 

The relation of the Civil Service Commission to the National 
University has not received sufficient consideration. The danger 
from the spoils system has been the chief objection to the National 
University in the minds of some of our greatest and best men. 
Every one appreciates, therefore, the service which the Civil Service 
Commission has rendered the cause by removing all opportunities for 
this vicious practice. The time has now arrived, however, when the 
Civil Service Commission can render this enterprise additional service 
by establishing a method through which properly prepared students 
can gain a support, corresponding to scholarships and fellowships, 
while prosecuting their sfudies in the different departments of the 
National University. It is to the method proposed for this purpose 
that the writer particularly desires to call the attention of scientific 
men at this time. 

It is now proposed by the Civil Service Commission to establish a 
regular system of examinations to be held at stated periods, conven- 
ient to the great educational centers in the country, once or twice 
each year, for the purpose of examining applicants for positions in 
the scientific service of the Government. The general plan may be 
sufficiently indicated by describing the one already drawn up for the 
Department of Agriculture, which was the first to take it up. 

All scientific assistants in this and the other bureaus of the Gov- 
ernment, here referred to, have recently been brought into the clas- 
sified service, as the clerical places had been before. To fill these 
positions it was necessary to arrange a systematic plan of examina- 
tions. Heretofore such of these places as were included in the clas- 
sified service were filled by special examinations held at irregular 
intervals at the request of the Secretary of the Department. An 
examination was usually given for each particular position and an 
eligible list provided, from which only one person was taken. 

The objections to these special examinations are numerous. The 
notices given by the Civil Service Commission were necessarily 
short, and did not become widely known. The examination ques- 
tions were hastily prepared to secure an eligible to fit a particular 
place with the result that the person certified for the position had 
too often only narrow special, rather than broad scientific training. 



Too frequenth' the Department has secured by this process only 
amateur scientists, having perhaps some abihty and considerable 
knowledge in certain lines, but without general education and there- 
fore limited in their usefulness and capacity to grow. 

Another objection was that the list of eligibles provided in this 
manner was a temporary one only, being designed to get one person 
to fill one place. Under the rules of the Civil Service Commission 
such a list lived for one year only, and it was, therefore, rather un- 
usual when a second person was taken from it. Such a system of 
examinations offers too little encouragement to candidates. Since 
special papers had to be prepared for each one of them and the 
examinations to be held in different parts of the country wherever 
there were applicants, these special examinations were also trouble- 
some and expensive to both the Civil Service Commission and the 
Department. 

For their best work the scientific bureaus of the Government need 
men of broader training than can be secured in this way. The ideal 
man, of course, for such a position is one who has had a liberal edu- 
cation, to which has been added general education in the natural 
sciences and special training and experience in some special depart- 
ment. In order to secure such a corps of experts it was necessary 
to establish the permanent lists of eligibles, and keep them up by 
regular examinations, held at stated intervals. 

After the new men are appointed in the Department it is desirable 
to give them, before they are advanced to positions of responsibility, 
some preliminary training in the special work of the particular 
bureau. In the new plan it is provided, therefore, that these can- 
didates shall come into the lower ranks first, where they shall have 
opportunities for advancement, if they prove worthy. The outlines 
of the plan proposed for the Department of Agriculture are given in 
an appendix to this paper. 

It will be noticed that the examinations are not for specified posi- 
tions l5ut for certificates of qualification in specified subjects or 
groups of subjects. Each candidate can form his own group of 
subjects to suit himself. The Civil Service Commission publishes 
lists of the various positions in the Government scientific service and 
the general qualifications required for each. When he requests the 
certification of eligibles the Secretary names the qualifications he 



9 

desires, and the Commission certifies the three persons who have the 
highest grade in the subjects mentioned or come nearest to supplying 
all of the qualifications required. 

It is hoped that the plan now adopted for the Department of 
Agriculture will, if it prove successful, be extended to inchide the other 
scientific bureaus of the Government. All that will be necessary in 
order to do this will be to include other subjects in the examinations. 
When this has been done it is evident that the scientific service will 
have a much better list of eligibles from which to draw, and that 
the scientific students of the country will have, for the first time, a 
plain way opened up for their admission to these surveys and labora- 
tories and to the enjoyment of the splendid opportunities which they 
offer. 

From the standpoint of the scientific bureaus this plan has the 
advantage of supplying them with the highest class of assistants. 
Under it they would get persons educated for the work and. capable 
of improving the advantages offered instead of persons having no 
special training and little or no ambition to improve themselves and 
advance human knowledge. 

From the standpoint of the National University, the Government 
pay-roll would be utilized to support a large body of properly educa- 
ted scholars and fellows in the various scientific faculties. With all 
our surveys, libraries, and laboratories filled with such educated and 
devoted persons we would soon have in Washington a noble body of 
students. 

It appears, therefore, that we need to take only two or three steps 
before we have the National University for which we have waited so 
long. The first step, of course, will be to properly organize the 
scientific bureaus of the Government as proposed in my former paper. 
The next step should be to extend the plan for civil service examina- 
tions now arranged for the Department of Agriculture to include 
all the bureaus of the Government, and thus provide scholarships 
and fellowships for a much greater number of graduate students. 
When this is done, the only other thing necessary will be the central 
organization, with its deans and registrars, the boards of examiners 
to bestow degrees, and, finally, the outfit of buildings for lecture 
rooms and examination halls. 



APPENDIX. 

PROPOSED PLAN FOR (lYIL SERTK E EXAMINATIONS 
FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

The object of this plan is to secure for the Department of Agricul- 
ture in all the grades of its service candidates having a broad general 
and scientific or technical training, and to encourage the graduates 
of scientific and technical schools of collegiate grade to enter the serv- 
ice of the Department in the lower grades with a view to making a 
career in its service or fitting themselves more fully for scientific and 
technical work in higher positions, either within or outside the Gov- 
ernment service. Considerable weight should therefore be given to 
the training which the candidate has received prior to his examina- 
tion. 

It is proposed to establish a class to be designated ' 'Assistant in the 
Department of Agriculture" with sub-classes to correspond to the 
special subjects under A and B below. 

I. — Character and Rating of Examinations. 

Examinations for assistant in the Department of Agriculture shall 
consist of five jjarts, as stated below, and credit shall be given on 
the following percentage scale : 
1. Basis examination : 

For tlie convenience of tlie Civil Service Commission and as a test of fitness for 
temporary service on the clerical staff, the regular first grade basis exami- 
nation is used. 

Orthography 1.5 

Arithmetic 3.5 

Letter wi-iting 2.5 

Penmanship 1.5 

Copying 2 



2. A statement of candidate's general training and experience 5 

A test of proficiency in English composition 5 



10 



10 



3. Major examinations on special scientific or technical subject- 50 

4. Minor examinations on two required subjects 20 

5. Minor examinations on additional electives 10 

Total 100 

10 



11 

II.— List of Subjects on Which Examiuations Will he Offered. 

Division A : 

Chemistry, analytical, agricultural, and industrial. 

Physics, especially as applied in meteorology and soil study. 

Meteorology. 

Physical geography of the United States. 

Botany, systematic. 

Vegetable physiology and pathology. 

Bacteriology. 

Forestry. 

Ornithology and mammalogy. 

Entomology, general and economic. 

Physiology and nutrition of man. 

Animal pathology. 

Animal production and dairying. 

Rural engineering. 

Statistics, especially of agricultural resources and productions. 
Division B: 

Bookkeeping. 

Stenography. 

Typewriting. 

Proof-reading and indexing. 

Editing and abstracting. 

Library work. 
Division C : 

Latin, | 

FrGiicli I 

German '> Translating and abstracting scientific articles in 

Italian, ' . | ^^^^^^ languages. 

Spanish, etc. J 

Two classes of examinations will be provided in each of the sub- 
jects in A and B— a major examination for speciahsts and a minor 
examination for those who take the subject as an adjunct to their 
specialty. 

III.— Rules for Examinations. 

Candidates must elect one of the subjects in Division A or B as 
their specialty or major, the examination in which shall count 50. 

In addition to the major special s\ibject, candidates must be 
examined on two minor subjects chosen by themselves from Divisions 
A, B, and C, at least one of which must be from Division A and one 
from either B or C. Each of these subjects shall have a maximum 
value of 10. 

Each candidate may take as many additional examinations from 
Divisions A, B, or C, as he chooses, but no one examination will 
count more than 5. 

Each candidate shall submit a statement of his educational history 
and opportunities for scientific training and experience, which shall 
be accessible to the Secretary of Agriculture in selecting ehgibles for 
special positions. 



L.ofC. 



12 

IV.— Eligible Lists. 

A record will be kept for each person on the eligible list of all the 
subjects in which he has passed. 

Eligible registers shall continue two years from the date of exam" 
ination. 

Eligibles shall be drawn from the lists thus established to fill all 
vacancies in the scientific and technical service of the Department of 
Agriculture. Inspectors, assistant inspectors, meat inspectors, stock 
examiners, microscopists, and assistant microscopists in the Bureau 
of Animal Industry outside of Washington, and river, rainfall, and 
other special observers in the Weather Bureau, are not considered 
within this class and these positions are to be filled as hereafter pro- 
vided, or that failing, as provided under VI. 

V. — Appointments and Promotions. 

Candidates on the lists thus established shall be eligible to appoint- 
ment to any position in the Department of Agriculture below the 
grade of assistant chief, under regulations to be established by the 
Commission. Vacancies occurring in any grade in the Department 
shall as far as practicable be filled by promotion from lower grades 
on such tests of fitness as the head of the Department shall prescribe. 
When this is not practicable, the Secretary of Agriculture shall call 
upon the Civil Service Commission to make certification from the 
aforesaid list of eligibles in accordance with the statement which he 
shall make regarding the duties of the position to be filled and the 
relative importance of these duties. It is expected that the positions 
of assistant chief and chief will ordinarily be filled by promotion, 
but in case this is not practicable, special examinations shall be held 
in which the employees of the Department shall be allowed to com- 
pete. 

VI. — Temporary Service in Minor Positions. 

Each candidate shall at the time of examination state whether or 
not he is willing to accept temporarily a position in the service of the 
Department outside the class of "assistant" here provided for, and 
if so, what branch or branches of work he prefers. A record of this 
shall be kept in connection with the eligible lists of the branches 
thus selected, and whenever the Department of Agriculture shall 
ask for a veterinary inspector, microscopist, clerk-copyist, bookkeeper, 
stenographer, compiler, artist, curator, propagator, skilled laborer, 
or other class of eligible outside the class of "assistant" here pro- 
vided for, the Civil Service Commission shall give the person who 
has passed the assistant's examination (if there be one) preference in 
the certification. In case of failure to find such scientific eligible, 
these positions shall be filled as heretofore from the lists of eligibles 
for the general departmental service. 



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